Julia's actions during last week's episode might have epitomized the phrase "one step forward, two steps back." She had finally gotten Joel (Sam Jaeger) to work on their marriage and the family. He was cooking pancakes, laughing with the kids and even looking forward to a date night......

.....and then Julia kissed Ed.

According to TVGuide.com, the kiss will lead to a very slippery slope going forward. Ed will not get the preverbal hint as the Julia (Erika Christensen) continues to leave his emails unanswered and pay no attention to him at school. He will show up, quiet inebriated, at a holiday party and confront Juliet in person.

As you might expect - and as you can see from the preview below - this situation doesn't translate to all hugs and rainbows.

The midseason finale also touched on a few other relationships on the show. Sarah (Lauren Graham) hooked up with Carl (Josh Stamberg) and then made it really awkward. However, it appears they are moving forward and going on a date - much to the dismay of Hank (Ray Romano).

Drew (Miles Heizer) had no girl near the end of last episode and now it looks like he has two. Amy (Skylar Day) has returned but judging from this photo it appears Natalie (Lyndon Smith) isn't as done with Drew as she said.

Finally there's Ryan (Matt Lauria) and Amber (Mae Whitman). Although Ryan's admission that he signed up to go back into service seemed to signal the end of Ryan/Amber, executive producer Sarah Watson says don't count them out yet.

"Matt Lauria will be back -that's not the last we've seen of Ryan," Watson said according to TVLine.com. "He will be back in a big and spectacular way. And I'm not going to say anything more than that, other than get your Kleenex ready.

"Parenthood" returns Jan. 2 on NBC.